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Greta Thunberg takes no prisoners, and not even the Swiss Prince himself, Roger Federer, gets a free pass.

Her anger stems from the fact that Federer has a lucrative sponsorship deal with Swiss financial giant Credit Suisse, a relationship which was put under the spotlight when climate change activists played tennis inside a branch back in November of last year, which landed them a hefty fine.

The protesters are now challenging those fines in court.

The November 2018 stunt was done in order to highlight Federer’s ties to a company with close links to the fossil fuel industry, reports the Guardian:

They also held up banners reading: “Credit Suisse is destroying the planet. Roger, do you support them?” Lawyers for the activists, mostly students, said they were appealing the fine of £17,000 (21,600 Swiss francs / $AU32,000) on the basis they were acting as whistleblowers for the climate emergency.

Protesters with signs gathered outside the courtroom in Lausanne, and the hashtag #RogerWakeUpNow has been trending on Twitter.

Greta retweeted one statement, in particular, that heaped pressure on the tennis star to respond:

Never one to back down from a challenge, Federer, who is Down Under preparing for the Australian Open which starts this week, issued a statement in response:

“I take the impacts and threat of climate change very seriously, particularly as my family and I arrive in Australia amidst devastation from the bushfires,” read Federer’s statement, sent to Reuters.

“As the father of four young children and a fervent supporter of universal education, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for the youth climate movement, and I am grateful to young climate activists for pushing us all to examine our behaviours and act on innovative solutions. We owe it to them and ourselves to listen. I appreciate reminders of my responsibility as a private individual, as an athlete and as an entrepreneur, and I’m committed to using this privileged position to dialogue on important issues with my sponsors.”

Whether or not he will have any success on that front remains to be seen, but Credit Suisse has announced recently that it will no longer invest in new coal-fired power plants.

I guess we now start counting down the days until somebody like Piers Morgan or Jeremy Clarkson has another pop at Greta.

Snowflakes.

[source:guardian]